Costume of Scanno

Costantino Barbella (Chieti 1852 – Rome 1925)

Of the numerous existing replicas (such as the one owned by Del Cimmuto of Pescocostanzo, exhibited at the 2015 Milan Expo, or the one in the “Costantino Barbella” Museum in Chieti), this one purchased in 2022 by the National Museum of Abruzzo is of extreme interest, not only for its excellent craftsmanship but, above all, for the date “1896” on the back.
This information, in fact, is of great use if we consider that, up to this day, the date of execution of the marble translation of this bust exhibited at the Civic Diocesane Museum in Sulmona has not yet found unanimous agreement among scholars.
Tradition has long recognised the beautiful figure of a woman in traditional Scannese dress with the characteristic “cappellitto” on her head as none other than the Sulmona-born Antonietta Corvi, Barbella’s wife whom he met through his friend Antonio De Nino and whom he married in 1889.
Regardless of this hypothesis, the beautiful bust, replicated several times in terracotta and also translated into marble, fully reflects the deep love Barbella had for the people of Abruzzo and their traditions.
Having travelled to Scanno as early as 1881 together with D’Annunzio and the cenacolo friends, the artist drew from this experience the inspiration for the rediscovery of local folklore as an inexhaustible source of his own artistic creation and thus of his people’s identity.